Martin Allen has announced he is to have a minor heart operation.
The Barnet manager, who spent most of his playing career at QPR and West Ham, has described the procedure as “simple and straightforward”.
He will miss Barnet’s League Two match against Crewe on Saturday.
In a message to fans on the Bees’ website, Allen, 53, said he had “tightness of the arteries” around his heart which “simply need clearing” and that he expects to return to work after a week.
Assistant manager James Russell, development coach Rossi Eames, goalkeeping coach Carl Muggleton and physio Luigi Cerullo will prepare the players for this weekend’s game.
Allen came through the youth ranks at QPR and made 136 appearances for the club before joining West Ham in 1989 following a fall-out with the then Rangers manager Trevor Francis.
He made nearly 200 appearances for the Hammers and was a firm fans favourite at Upton Park, where he was nicknamed ‘mad dog’.
His cousin Clive Allen also played for QPR and West Ham.
He is in his fourth spell as Barnet boss and has also managed Brentford, Leicester, MK Dons, Gillingham, Cheltenham and Notts County.
Barnet are 12th in the table, two points off the play-off places.